Experiential travel is growing as travelers seek to enrich their lives with a collection of experiences. For experiential travelers, just seeing the sights is no longer enough. They want to go beyond the tourist areas and immerse themselves into authentic local culture to connect with people in ways that enrich their lives and create lasting memories. Now, a new iPhone app aims to deliver just that.

Afar is focused on experiential travel and has a new iPhone app that they consider “the antidote to clunky travel guidebooks and sites like TripAdvisor,” says Venturebeat. Afar started as a travel magazine offering in-depth articles about different locations and cultures. Their new app, released this week, goes a different direction with user-generated content.

“What is experiential travel? Experiences that connect you with the essence of a place and its people … simply seeing the sights is no longer enough,” says Tim Peck, chairman of OBMI, a firm that plans things like hotels and resorts. “Experiential travelers want to venture beyond the beaten tourist paths and dive deeper into authentic, local, culture, connecting with people from other cultures in ways that enrich their lives and create lasting memories.”

The Afar app lets users take a photo with their iPhone, type up a quick description, and add it to Afar’s library of travel experiences or check out the photos submitted by other users and start planning their next trip.
“It’s like Instagram meets Foodspotting, but with a focus on dreamy travel locations,” says Venturebeat, a thought consistent with Afar’s mission “that inspires and guides those who travel the world to connect with its people, experience their cultures, and understand their perspectives.”